For others, any roof over one's head is better than none.
Downside: The garden sits atop the condo's communal roof, so any roof repair means ripping up the garden.
And not just any roof, but a gabled, dormer-studded affair with stone turrets and Gothic finials.
An added advantage of cold liquid roofing membranes, he said, is that the material can be used on almost any roof.
The flowering pear trees are acting up on city sidewalks, and nothing going on under any roof can compete with them.
"Since I had not slept under any roof since the earthquake, I was so scared I could not breathe," said the woman, Rose, who requested that her full name be withheld.
Mr. Holland chided us for our arrogance and "presumption born of our surroundings," stating that although "Wagner and Bach have been doing well at Lincoln Center," "nothing going on under any roof can compete" with the flowering of spring.
DirecTV introduced small satellite dishes that could be mounted on practically any roof, wall or balcony, compared with the large backyard dishes then in general use by satellite TV subscribers.
"The type of plant used plays a role, but also the depth of the substrate used, and the structural design of the green roof," he said, pointing to a recent study by his team which showed that the use of pre-fabricated modules containing plants – favored because they are easy to install on any roof – retain storm water much less well than green roofs built from the floor up.
Complicating the issue is the fact that dozens of models of the heaviest S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks, those 6,000 pounds or more, are exempt from any roof strength regulations at all because the rules were developed long before the truck boom.
